Collecting and testing biological specimens is conducted on daily basis in laboratories throughout the world. Examples of biological specimen testing includes DNA analysis, substance testing, urinalysis, serum/blood testing and genetic analysis. Prior to the introduction of automated mechanical technology, biological specimens were collected and tested manually. With the advent of automated mechanical technology, however, testing of biological samples has become more rapid and reliable.
One example of this automated technology involves the use of micro well plates or micro titer plates. The typical micro well plate is configured to have eight rows, each row having twelve wells (or 96 wells in the plate). Recently developed micro well plates have as many as 384 wells in the plate. Biological specimens first are collected in various ways including using an absorbent that retains the biological specimen in an efficient manner. The biological specimens are then transferred into the wells of a micro well plate or “plate” for subsequent analysis. One way to transfer the biological specimen to the plate is through a “punch” method. Typically, a device will punch an area of the absorbent containing the biological specimen into a particular well (A1, A2, A3, . . . A12)(FIG. 5) of a micro well plate. This process is repeated for each of the wells of the plate. Although the plates allow for the rapid analysis of a multitude of biological specimens, the process of transferring specimens to the wells of the plates is time consuming and prone to cross contamination and misidentification of the specimens inserted into the wells. For example, cross contamination may occur if the “punch” device used to remove a portion of the absorbent to be analyzed in the well is not cleaned prior to punching of a subsequent absorbent containing a different biological specimen. Also, with the use of large groups of specimens as may be found in the 96 well plates, there exists a higher chance of incorrectly labeling or identifying one of the 96 biological specimens placed into the wells of the plate. Finally, because of the sheer quantity of samples of biological specimens generated with the use of micro well plate assays, there is a vital need to organize, store and transport biological specimens contained on the absorbents of a specimen collector.